Pirates maintain momentum with big win over Waterloo

Coming off an overtime win against West Branch earlier this week, Southeast (2-1, 2-0 PTC County) managed to comfortably defeat Waterloo (0-3, 0-1 PTC County) 68-46 on their home court Friday night in a Portage Trail Conference County Division clash.

"We're real proud of the way our kids played tonight," Southeast head coach Matt Dillon said. "We came off a pretty big win Tuesday night, and we told the kids we were interested to see how they would respond after coming off that win.

"I thought we moved the ball really well on offense. We got our teammates involved, which is what you want to see," Dillon said.

The Pirates jumped out with a 6-0 run against the Vikings and ended the first quarter with a 10-point lead. They outscored Waterloo again in the second quarter and before halftime had secured a 30-18 advantage over the Vikings.

The Pirates continued to dominate and posted 23 points in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth, separating themselves from the Vikings by 22 points by the end of the game.

Southeast had eight players contribute to their overall 68 points, with three of them reaching double-digits in scoring.

"We've been saying we need four or five kids every night to be able score," Dillon said. "We've been fortunate that in our last two games, we spread the ball and when kids got open shots, they made open shots."

Leading the Pirates was Jordan Krych, who cleared a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Nathan Simyak knocked down four 3-pointers and totaled 12 points for the night. Trevor Norquest finished with 14 points, while Lucas Bloom managed nine points.

"Part of our philosophy is to make sure we get our teammates involved," Dillon said. "If you're going to be selfish, you can't play in our program. We can't afford to take bad shots. We have to pass the ball and rely on our teammates to make those shots.

"We're going to be in close ball games every night, so we're just going to play as well as we can play. If our kids keep playing unselfish like this, we're going to be successful," Dillon said.

The Vikings' major contributors included Tom Saviers with 11 points, Collin Michalec with 10 points and Sean Umstot with nine points.